An Officer & 'Rubber Planter's' Malaya Campaign and 'Death Railway' F.E.P.O.W. campaign & long service medal group of 5: Lieutenant Cecil Bright Lea, 3rd (Negri Sembilan) Battalion Federated Malay States Volunteer Force

- The 1939-45 Star. No clasp
- The Pacific Star. No clasp
- Defence Medal
- War Medal
- Efficiency Medal. GVI type I 'Malaya' bar (6199 C.Q.M.S., Cecil Bright Lea, F.M.S.V.F.)

Note: Medal with single minor official correction to last letter of surname - and exactly as issued

Medal verification: The award of the Efficiency Medal was published in the issue of 31 January 1941 - and one of the last awards of the GVI first type EM's with bar 'Malaya' to be gazetted and issued prior to the start of the Pacific War

Lieutenant Cecil Bright Lea was a long-standing pre-war member of the 3rd (Negri Sembilan) Battalion Federated Malay States Volunteer Force. Commissioned Lieutenant in 1941, he was with other members of his unit mobilized for 'War Service' on, 8 November 1941, at which time his battalion under their Commanding Officer Lt-Colonel C.F.H. Riches, was, together with other F.M.S.V.F. units, assigned to the Line of Communications Brigade under command of Brigadier Robert Gifford Moir, the brigade being deployed on the Malay Peninsula. After his capture at the surrender of Singapore Colony on, 15 February 1942, Cecil is recorded being incarcerated at no less than 8 x Prisoner of War camps located briefly in Singapore and from mid 1942 in, Thailand (Siam), where he worked the on the 'Death Railway'. Cecil's 'Liberation Questionnaire' is extant and held and accessible at The National Archives. We have been able to record all - except one - of the camps where Cecil was held prisoner, in order of sequence these were:

- Changi (Singapore)
- Ban Pong (Thailand)
- Chungkai (Thailand) he spent two periods of captivity at this camp
- Tha Makam (Thailand)
- Kanchanaburi (Thailand)
- Nakhon Nayok (Thailand)

Lieutenant Cecil Bright Lea, survived his ordeal as a Far East Prisoner of War, including work on the Death Railway and the 'Bridge over the Kwai' and is recorded as being 'Liberated' in Thailand, on, 2 September 1945

Cecil Bright Lea, son of Arthur Henry Lea (an Electrical Mechanical Engineer) and Ada Charlotte Lea (nee Bright), was a native of, Kettering, Northamptonshire, England, where he was born on 23 October 1904. In the 1920's Cecil accepted an overseas appointment in the Federated Malay States, where he was to pursue a long and successful career as a Rubber Planter (he was destined to remain in South East Asia, through to the 1960'.). In 1939, he was employed with the Selangor and Chembong Malay Rubber Co Ltd, as a Plantation Manager at the Semenyih Estate, Selangor. Cecil joined the Federated Malay States Volunteer Force in February 1928, and by the time he was awarded his Efficiency Medal in 1941, held the rank of, Company Quarter Master Sergeant. He was appointed a commission in 1941, with rank of Lieutenant. Post-war, Cecil returned to Malaya, where he was employed variously as Plantation Manager at Saringgit Estate, Semenyih, Selangor, and by 1952 was located at the Harpenden Estate, Kapar, Selangor. In the 1960's, Cecil took up retirement and returned to the United Kingdom, where he settled in Hampshire, England. Cecil Bright Lea, residing at, f 11 Norman Road, Winchester, Hampshire, is recorded to have died on, 2 February 1991

The medals all retaining their original silk ribands as issued, the mounted in the swing-style and as-worn by the recipient, suspended on silk ribands. The reverse of the mounting bar retaining the original long hinged pin and clasp fittings

Condition: EF

Code: 22874